2009 Kiva Calendar -- Discussion, Suggestions & Plans

[Guest]

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[Christopher]

Time to get the ball rolling me [following some PM exchanges with Chris] thinks!

Chris is waiting to hear back from Fiona on images etc, but there is lots to get going on...

Firstly: DEADLINES

• Chris wants to send the finished artwork to the printers before September
• If I am going to do the layout then I need to have done most of it (bar minor tweaks) by 25th August (when I start a new job after 15 months of career break)

Secondly: Initial discussion points

• The same basis as last year? with a balance between Countries, Loan Use, Gender (and now individual & group loans)
• Does everyone want a 13-month calendar again? - If not, what could go on the 2 free pages...
  • Text? - about Kiva? Kivafriends? Microfinance? Lender profiles?
  • Additional images? - possibly *big* implications for Fiona and a whole lot more work for her
  • Notionally the 2 pages are the inside back cover (and the page that faces this) - but they could be the centerfold pages (stop sniggering at the back please )
• Design
  • Are there any budding designers out there who have joined us since last year?  If you can do the design and layout please shout as I am more than happy to step aside (and the first one to admit the 2008 design was fairly boring and utilitarian)
  • I am afraid I only have time to implement some tweaks - which according to the Kivapedia article, include: hole, MFI names in credits, and larger numbers. Any more?
  • Maps - Do we need to include a map? (Kiva now uses GoogleMaps on their site so we cannot rip those as we did with the country images last year.  Free for non-commercial maps do exist somewhere...)

Thirdly: Volunteers
Are you willing to volunteer? lots of help will be needed from lots of people to get the calendar finished on time...

• Photos
  • Please search Kiva (Entrepreneurs and Journals) for any photos you think worthy for the 2009 Calendar and post them here: http://www.kivafriends.org/index.php/topic,1269.msg37999.html#new - some groups are well represented, others are not so please check the long list first...
  • The long list is here: http://www.editgrid.com/user/cweddell/2009_calendar_long_list.myloansexhibit.html
  • Photos need to be larger than 1024x768 and in focus - if they contains dates, are too dark or light they might still be usable (PhotoShop is our friend)
  • Remember you can get to the original by replacing w800 with orig in the URL
• Quotes - Collect possible 2009 calendar Quotes here
• Other text - if we have 2 free pages - do you have the text to go on them?
• Maps - where are those free for non-commercial use maps?
• Voting - are you ready for the endless rounds of voting?

Let us begin...

[wthepoo]

  Thanks a lot, Christopher! Great job you did on this post and compiling the long list. I can't wait to order the calendar 

I happily volunteer for voting and continuing to look out for suitable photos (and promise to look closer at the resolution this time) 

As for the "Initial discussion points":
* I don't really know about last year's calendar (I was too late in finding Kiva and KF ) but I think some kind of balance would be nice - at least by way of countries (maybe not more than 1 or 2 photo(s) per country) and loan use (maybe not more than 2 or 3 photos per profession). It would be nice to have at least one or two groups pictured (IMHO), but probably not more (?), and the odd male single borrower - but I am fine with a significant majority of female individual borrowers (like to be found on kiva.org, anyway). I think, though, that quality should come first, and balance considerations should not really dominate the debate.
* I like 13-month-calendars - what are the considerations against it? "Just" higher cost? Though the additional images idea sounds great... maybe one of RichardF's [sorry, Richard - maybe someone else would do the work, but you just showed us how beautiful they can be] collages? What exactly are the *big* implications for Fiona? And what exactly is her work in this? [getting clearance for the photo use?]
* Design: Big numbers sound good for a calendar, as does a "fairly boring and utilitarian" design - though if some new talent is around (me not, I'm afraid)... why not? Hit us with your ideas!

That's all I can contribute now, I guess. Thanks again,
Wolfgang.

[mejane]

Christopher,
I think we have enough pictures on your current list to pick 12 for the calendar (don't you think?).  More pictures now would only make it harder (IMHO).

As far as the additional pages........... it has been mentioned we could highlight the special projects....
such as:  the wheelchair drive for Regina, the Kiva quilt as a fundraiser, the record breaking attempt for most Kiva Friends on a loan, etc. (someone else can fill any of the projects I have missed).

I am willing to volunteer to help but don't know in what way I would be able to contribute.  If I could work with someone who has done this last year that would be great.  (I am not a computer geek so "computer tricks" would not be my specialty.)

Thanks, Jane

[Christopher]

For those new to the Calendar project I have attached the final proofs from last year - unzip them and you have all of the pages in jpg format.

I am working on the basis of a 28 page calendar - which means we can either go for 13 months, or 12 months plus 2 pages of something else.  It cropped up in debate last year, and because of time I am afraid I went for the simple route of using the printer's template. Perhaps this could be out first poll.

We are a bit in the dark at the moment until Chris hears back from Fiona.  I am working on the premise we find pictures, and then hopefully she can get the permissions to use them - so the more we want to use, the more people and permissions Fiona has to contact and get.  I fear mosaics contain lots of pictures, particularly if permissions is needed to be gotten for the use of each picture.  This could mean getting the permission of each person in each picture.

We do have lots of pictures, but several countries have none, or only one or two entries - it would be nice if possible to have an even spread.

Highlighting special projects is a great idea.

[Christopher]

Maps - answering my own question...

I think is sorted with a version of this: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:BlankMap-World6%2C_compact.svg

The original is in vector format so I can zoom into any area without any loss of quality to produce a suitable map.  In the final design text can be added for country names etc.

[mejane]

Mosaic pictures would be wonderful but the practical aspect of getting the permission is a lot of work.  I think  keeping this simple is the best idea in terms of work for Kiva (Fiona).  To me, this means that mosaics need to be ruled out.

The calendar pages with the maps like last year are wonderful!!!  I think we should keep what you had. 
(Thanks for providing the proofs from last year!!)

Jane
(I am excited about this project, can you tell?)

[wthepoo]

Mosaic pictures would be wonderful but the practical aspect of getting the permission is a lot of work.  I think  keeping this simple is the best idea in terms of work for Kiva (Fiona).  To me, this means that mosaics need to be ruled out.

While I agree that the necessity of getting the permission from every single borrower would/should basically rule out mosaics, I wonder if that is exactly necessary. I am not exactly sure how it worked last year and what are Kiva's terms with the MFIs regarding the photos but I have discovered this rather early in last year's calendar thread (posted by Diane regarding information she had obtained from Fiona):

"She strongly recommends we look through the photos on the Media Gallery page and choose from those first.  In addition to those, if we have found any CLEAR, HIGH-RESOLUTION, LARGE photos through our "Best Smiles" investigations, we should incorporate those (and when this is over, we should send her a PM with those links so she can see if she wants to include them in her Images gallery).  There is no need for further releases from those entrepreneurs whose images are chosen. She further suggested that we look through the photos added to the Journals by the Fellows for candidates, since those photos are often of higher quality and resolution."

Maybe someone involved in last year's project can tell me/us if there were further complications down the road or whether you decided to nevertheless ask for special permission (which I could understand).

Thanks and take care,
Wolfgang.

[Odette]

2008 Calendars were fabulous and I'm looking forward to buying my own this year! (Last year I was able to get a few from Carol who luckily ordered about 10.) 

The layout, photo selection, write-up and map seemed to work very well.  My only suggestion for this year is to make the date /numbers larger and bolder which would make them easier to read.

Looking forward to the calendar picture poll!

[Christopher]

Regarding larger numbers, please see the attached pdf.

One page comes from the template last year, the other is the new template where I have increased some of the text size - I hope you can spot the difference, please let me know what you think.

If you print it out please make sure you have set any page scaling options to none - that way you will get it at the proper size.
C

[QueenOfHearts]

much better Christopher...I can actually see these numbers....LOL

Queen